Becoming a Better Version of Me: A Study on the Resiliency of Reunified Young Adult Filipino Immigrants in Norway

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Becoming a Better Version of Me: A Study on the Resiliency of Reunified Young Adult Filipino Immigrants in Norway

ELSA S. ALCUETAS Author

Erasmus Mundus Master’s Programme in Social Work with Families and Children

PROFESSOR TONE HAUGS Supervisor

UNIVERSITY OF STAVANGER, NORWAY June 3, 2019

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ABSTRACT

Title: Becoming a Better Version of Me: A Study on the Resiliency of Reunified Young Adult Filipino Immigrants in Norway

Author: Elsa S. Alcuetas

Keywords: Young-Adult Immigrants, Resiliency in Young Adults, Ecological Resilience, Identity Development, Coping

This research study is done on the purpose of exploring the strengths-based perspectives in approaching the immigration topic amongst young adults. Previous conducted studies among immigrant youth development and coping are problem-focused and are done in comparison with their non-immigrant peers which is seen to be enforcing of stereotypes and insensitivity to their experiential context.

Grounded from the social constructivist view of resilience, this study explores the resiliency of the young adult Filipino migrants in Norway using the ecological resilience model. This model views resilience as a process within the individual and the systems surrounding him/her to include the influence of culture. This phenomenological study is participated by eight (8) Filipino immigrants aged 15-19 years old. The narratives along their lived experience as an immigrant youth in Norway elucidated the process of how their resilience is developed. The result of this study established that in the face of risks, central to the coping of the immigrant young adults is their ability to navigate the resources within themselves and in their environment and to make meaning out of them. Their resilience is indicated by the strategies they employed in the exercise of self-agency and the creative development of an integrated self-identity that is culturally and contextuality relevant despite the challenges they experience along their immigrant living.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Feeling immensely blessed with all the opportunities that was accorded to me, I am expressing my gratitude to the following people and organizations that supported me not only in this thesis writing journey but also to my entire master’s education endeavor.

The European Commission through the Erasmus Mundus scholarship where I am indebted for affording me a life changing experience being granted this two-year MFamily master program.

The experience did not only allow me to experience social work in Europe but the whole world so to say, as our lecturers hail from the different countries across the globe. The founders and professors have ensured that this learning experience would not only be educational but also reflective to our own being. All your contribution in building both my personal and professional self will be etched in my humanity forever. Special mention to Prof. Maria das Dores Guerreiro, Prof. Vishantie Sewpaul, Prof Margaret Davidson, Prof. Susan Young, Prof. Shayne Walker and Prof. Micheal Ungar and the others along this line. And to my classmates who made me experience the world as they represented 16 different countries, our friendship is part of my life’s treasure.

To my thesis supervisor Prof. Tone Haugs, whose expertise in supervision is seasoned by experience. I am in so much appreciation of her support to this entire thesis writing endeavor. Her approach to supervision makes a student think critically of every step in the process hand-in-hand providing a holistic support covering not only academic and technical but also along increasing my morale whenever I start to self-doubt. Her expertise in supervision is worth emulating to practice.

To the Filipino Community in Stavanger, who without their presence and support would have made my student life rather lifeless and lacking. These Filipino families who took me as if I was their own filled me emotionally, it was essential as source of support during difficult days of my student life. It was also from this community where I drew my inspiration to build this entire research. Thank you will never be enough to sum-up how grateful I am as you accorded me an extended family that I will treasure a lifetime.

I am also thanking the Department of Social Welfare and Development- Caraga Region who allowed me to take this two-year study leave. I am in fervent hope that whatever I learned from this degree will become useful to the development of our programs and services.

My family in the Philippines whom I missed a lot as they celebrated important life milestones that I will forever miss. I am grateful for your efforts to always make me feel included in every life event, thanks to technology. You all have inspired me to always do my best in everything I face in life. Special mention goes to my fiancé Joseph Lawrence Jamora, for taking a huge leap to come to Norway to support me during the most critical stage of my thesis writing. Your presence meant so much in accomplishing this study. I cannot thank you enough for such a huge effort you have done.

Last but not the least, to God the Almighty who made all these things possible. Let it be that this academic work form part of my dedication to serve your people. Again, in my native tongue I express my deepest and sincere gratitude, Daghan kaayong salamat sa inyong tanan!

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Consolidated profile of the participants and their migration history.

Table 2.Participants’ family situation profiler upon arrival in Norway and frequency of going back to Philippines

Table 3. Tabular presentation of the themes under challenges and the responses of the participants to each.

Table 4. Tabular Presentation of Themes along Navigated Resources by the Participants and their Responses to each.

Table 5. Tabular presentation on the coping strategies adhered by the participants and their responses to each.

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

The migration phenomenon in its decades of existence have changed the structures of countries resulting to more diverse population. In 2015, around 4.8 million migrants were recorded to arrive in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, recording attribution of one third of this total number to family reunification and free movement (OECD, 2018). With the influx of migration, the right to family has a become fundamental right (Staver, 2013) and has attained a comprehensive protection in the international law (Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

With the massive growth of migrants, the need for transnational social work practice is pressing to capacitate the social workers to deal with this phenomenon. Being a student in this international social work master program, I position my professional practice in the transnational arena being able to work across nation-state boundaries. In order to capably do the work, the challenge is to best understand the relationship of the social issues currently being experienced by immigrants to develop new perspectives on the provision of appropriate social services (Mitha and Sheriff, 2010).

In the two years of study in this master’s program, the topics on migration and transnational social work have been heavily discussed and that being said made the greatest motivator to choose migration as my research subject of interest. Further, being a Filipino myself also had its contribution in the choice of focus of this study.

About 10 million or 10% of the Philippines’ total population are dispersed around the globe with huge numbers pushed by the economic factors of the country (Philippine Statistics Authority, 2015). Most of the working Filipinos who gained residency and/or citizenship in the countries where they are working petitions their family for better life opportunities (Fernandez, 2013). This

“better life opportunities” fuel the general notion in the country on a bed-of-roses kind of life for every child that is petitioned by the parent/s to migrate abroad. My choice to study reunified young adult Filipino immigrants has been pushed by my curiosity in this standing belief.

Through the years, there has been numerous researches made along migration studies. But notably most of them are centered in the perspective of the immigrant adult or are foretold in the point- view of the parents. The exclusion of children until recently have been marginal in migration research despite factual research evidences that points out that they are not passive recipients of the migration phenomena (Mand, 2015). Further, most of them are problem focused undermining the strengths of those which experiences this phenomenon (Bag-ao, 2016). Problem-focused approach to understanding immigration is an outright contradictory to social work’s advocacy on human empowerment.

Thus, imbibing the social work value of social justice and strengths perspective. This research was aimed at giving voice to the migration stories of the reunified Filipino young adults in Norway as they unravel their lived experiences as being young immigrants in this country highlighting on their resiliency.

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This phenomenological study was drawn from the narratives of eight (8) reunified young-adult Filipino immigrants ages fifteen (15) to nineteen (19) years old who have immigrated in Norway for more than two (2) years. These young adults are first generation immigrants who immigrated to Norway through family reunification.

1.2 Background of the Study

Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (2015) has recorded an average of five thousand (5,000) Filipinos leaving the country per day. The 2016 survey on overseas Filipinos has estimated that about 2.2 million are working abroad. This made the country rank 3rd in the list of highest recipient country for remittances, as a result, overseas remittances accounts for 9.8% of the country’s total Gross Domestic Product (UN International Migration Report, 2015). Latest statistics from the Philippine Statistics Authority (2015) has recorded about 10.45 million Filipino citizens or 10% of the total population are in over two hundred (200) countries around the world, this number comprises of those which are working, residing and are already naturalized citizens.

Evidently, the migration phenomenon is of high impact not only to the families affected but also to economical level of the country. All these make the Filipinos to be dubbed as “the most globalized workforce on the planet” (Rodriguez, 2010 cited in Bag-ao 2016).

The Filipino migration in the recent years account for huge raise in numbers as the process is strengthened by migrant networks that allows for cross-border mobility. These networks serve to transmit knowledge and information to those who are left behind (Fresnoza-Flot, 2015). The financial resources that they bring forth to the family being left behind fuels not only the family but the entire community to follow the route of migration. Bag-ao (2016) points out this phenomenon in a family setting where migration is transmitted from parents to their children as the parents wants to provide for better living conditions for their children, the children in turns think that migrating with them is the means for comfortable living.

In Norway immigrant population comprised almost around 18% of the entire country coming from 221 countries and autonomous regions (Statistics Norway, 2019). From 1994-2014 Norway has recorded more family reunification than new marriages. This increase has been attributed to increase in the labor migrants following the south-eastward expansion of the European Union (Sandnes, 2015). Philippines is one of the countries topping the populace in this category as it ranked 6th in the top 10 most common country of origin of immigrants residing in Norway with about 22, 272 in population (Statistics Norway, 2019).

Family reunification in the parlance of family immigration is the process of reuniting a family member/s to another family member/s abroad. In Norway, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration further puts a qualification that a sponsoring family member must have a Norwegian citizenship or a residence permit constituting legal grounds for such purpose. Family reunification in Norway has been limited to close family members to include only the spouse and their child/ren below 18 years of age. Over the years, the Filipino population in Norway have raised in numbers with great attribution to family reunification with most of the sponsoring family member are parent/s who holds a secured job with stable tenure or those which have been married to EU citizens.

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With the phenomenon of families forming in a different country other than their own, the entire family is exposed to different forms of risks as they build their family life in a new setting (Schapiro, Kools, Weiss and Brindis, 2013). Relatedly, most migration studies have focused itself on the challenges that these families go through without giving as much attention to the process by which the members of these families undergo to conquer them (Bag-ao, 2016). In the case of Filipinos in Norway despite their growing number, not much studies are made along their immigrant living, specially so in studies along the reunified young adult immigrants which is the focus of this study.

On the other hand, resiliency as a concept defined simply as the ability of a person to overcome adversity has been widely studied in different aspects of human lives (OECD, 2018). Most of these studies are quantitative in nature that lately have been question to its reliability and validity given the complexity of human interactions (Glantz and Sloboda, 1999 and Masten, 2001 cited in Ungar, 2003). Anent this, current trends in resilience research have deviated from looking at the subject as solely quantifiable as qualitative research methods in resilience research emerges to recompense these critiques. Qualitative approach in research in its nature provides for a thick contextualize description of the phenomena as experienced by a specific group of people (Ungar, 2003).

As a Filipino social worker enrolled in this international master program bearing with me the core values of the profession. I made a conscious decision to focus this study on the exploration of the resiliency of the reunified young adult Filipino immigrants. This is to give voice to their migration experiences as reunified immigrant children and to further reposition the course of current trends in migration studies. Most studies were focused on the challenges thus the need towards unraveling the strengths of the individuals in understanding the complex dynamics related to its achievement as they experience this phenomenon is immanent.

1.3 Problem Statement

Presented statistics would show that immigrant Filipinos in Norway has picked up huge numbers over the years but there is not much studies made along their immigrant living (Bag-ao, 2016).

Along immigration effects to children, a few authors have written about their experiences but mostly are foretold in the adult point of view. Taylor (2003) inferred that children of immigrant parents in Scandinavia suffers from social and psychological challenges attributed to uncertainty of their future but even then, family reunification is still seen as indispensable for these families.

Clearly children are not passive recipients of the immigration phenomena. The exclusion of children until recently have been marginal in migration research despite factual research evidences of its effects on their lives (Mand, 2015).

With most migration studies are focused on the challenges of being an immigrant it is indispensable for a social worker promoting the strengths-based perspective to equally give attention to the factors that makes immigrant living successful in support to the existing implementation of the family reunification policies.

It is then evident that this study is driven by the following: first, the dearth in knowledge along the lives of Filipino immigrants. Second, the representation of children in migration studies as active participants in this phenomenon. Social justice as a core value in the social work profession aims to give voice to the unheard sectors to the community. Hearing children’s voices is also embedded

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in their rights as stipulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).

And lastly, to deviate from the majority of migration studies which are problem-focused in the promotion of strengths-based perspective, a core approach in social work practice that is being heavily encouraged in this master education.

1.4 Research Question

The focus of this study was to explore on the lived experiences of the reunified Filipino young adults in Norway focusing on their resiliency. As follows are the research questions that were aimed to elucidate this phenomenon.

The main research question that this study sought to answer was “How is resiliency characterized in the lived experiences of reunified Filipino young adults in Norway?” With the following sub- questions to deeply explore on the matter:

• What are the challenges that they have faced being a young Filipino immigrant in Norway?

• How do they overcome these challenges?

1.5 Research Objectives and Purpose

The general objective of this study was to explore on the resiliency of reunified young adult Filipino immigrants in Norway with as follows as the specific objectives:

• To know the challenges that they encounter being a Filipino young adult immigrant in Norway.

• To know how they deal with the challenges they encounter.

• To understand how these elements interplay with their resiliency.

The general purpose of this study was to add to the reservoir of knowledge along migration studies especially in the perspective of young adults. And to gain a deeper understanding on the experiences of immigrant Filipino children in Norway focusing on their resiliency.

1.6 Scope and Limitations

This is a phenomenological study that elucidates the lived experiences of eight (8) reunified young adult Filipino immigrants aged fifteen to nineteen (15-19) years old focusing on the characterization of their resiliency. All the respondents of this study are situated in Stavanger for ease of access as this is where this research is hosted. This study is therefore limited to the narratives from a small group of immigrant youth thus cannot be representative of the entire population. As this study is driven by strengths perspective, the adversities experienced by the participants are not discussed in-depth. Further as the narratives was gathered through one-time interview, the explored relationship among different systems surrounding the individual including the challenges they experienced was not exhaustively discussed as to level of their individual contribution in the resilience process (e.g. what system contributes more to the development of resilience).

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1.7 Relevance of the Study

1.7.1 Relevance to Social Work

As a student scholar in this Erasmus Mundus European master’s in social work with Families and Children, this serves as one of our learning outputs. Over the one and a half year of being in this master study, a strong emphasis on the inclusion of children’s voice in all fields of social work practice has been established (Healy, K (1998); Malone, K. & Hartung, C. (2010); Landsdown, G.

(1997)).

As most migration studies are told in the perspective of other adult members in the family, mostly parents (Mand, 2015). This study supports the right of the child to be heard by giving them a voice in the migration phenomenon through sharing their childhood reunification experiences. Bearing social justice as core value of social work, hearing their experience from their perspective themselves is a leap from the paternalistic view of children as passive recipients of this phenomenon.

Further, the use of strengths-based perspective is embedded in the core values of social work implicated in the International Federation of Social Workers (2018) in its promotion of human empowerment. To identify and cultivate strengths in individuals, groups and communities is essential in the social work practice and to deviate from the problem-focused approach is seen as honoring the inherent human dignity and capacity.

This study is anchored heavily on the strength-based perspective as it explores on the resiliency of the young adult Filipino immigrants, which is a clear departure from the route of most migration studies which are geared at problem-focused approaches (Bag-ao, 2016). Thereby providing for additional perspectives in the migration studies along young adults.

With the aforementioned statements, this study per se is not only relevant in its contribution to the existing knowledge-base of migration studies but also contributes to the knowledge and practice base of the social work profession in transnational settings. The knowledge that this study produced serves as a reference for social workers working not only with young adult Filipino immigrants but also with other youth immigrants from other countries of origin to better situate themselves along the dynamics of the development of their resiliency. This study then poses its further relevance to the transferability of the knowledge gathered from this group to other immigrant groups.

1.7.2 Relevance to Policy

As this study explores on the lives of young adult Filipinos and their experiences being an immigrant in Norway, the results may be able to bring significance to programs, services and immigration policies in both Philippines and Norway.

Both countries have respective organizations that looks into the integration of the immigrant children. One as being the country who ensures the readiness of the child to be reunified with the parent/s whilst the other ascertains the successful integration in the new country.

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On a personal level, as I work in the Philippine’s banner social welfare agency, the result of this study will serve as a stepping to stone for further academic inquiries that would shed light to the development of programs along children with parents abroad. For a country with huge numbers of overseas workers, it gives us huge numbers of children left under single parent care or kinship care (Bag-ao, 2016) that are unaccounted and are not looked out for by the state. Whether or not they be reunified with their parent/s, it is vital to have programs and services that are patterned specifically for their needs.

1.7.3 Relevance to the Society

The Norwegian society have been widely known for being a welfare state (Esping-Andersen, 2007). This welfare model is designed to ensure that all individuals gets equal access to government services and benefits despite difference in social class. With the value of the equal opportunities and best-interest of the child deeply ingrained in the Norwegian society, this study poses its social relevance in hearing the voices of these young adults despite coming a minority group whilst gearing to ensure their successful integration in the mainstream society through the provision of appropriate services.

Further, the results of this study also may serve as a resource material for Filipino parent/s who plans to reunify with children here in Norway. More so, for the Filipino parents who already have been reunified with their child/ren who wish to gain knowledge and understanding of their growing young adult as they live their life in Norway.

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CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This chapter contains the literature review and the philosophical, and theoretical framework of the study. The organization of which was strategically done to give a contextualize overview of the focus of inquiry of this research in line with its theoretical framework. As this study utilizes phenomenological method, the inductive process was carried out to inform the literature review section. It means that the literatures that formed part in this section was sought after to support and discuss the results and findings established including the theories (Gray, 2014).

Guided with a mind map, this was arranged to begin with an introduction to the Filipino culture and family which was purposely included to provide a better understanding and consequential contextualization of the Filipino life. This is then followed by a run-down of the current trends on resiliency studies among youth, studies supporting development of identity as core in adolescent development, the environmental systems surrounding them: family, school, community, and problem-focused studies among immigrant youth. Additionally, studies along the role of culture in resilience was also included to point out its relevance in resiliency. Current available statistics are presented, and highlights of significant literatures and the relevant findings made by previously conducted researches along these topics has been compiled. Gaps in the existing literature were also established in the later part of the paper to provide for justification of the relevance of the conduct of this research.

Most resources used in this chapter are culled out from online databases. Searching online for relevant articles for this study has been challenging as social work-related topics in general is a hard quest (Bronson & Davis, 2011; Clapton, 2010; Grayson & Gomersall, 2003; Ogilvie et al., 2005; Papaioannou et al., 2010 cited in McGinn et. al, 2016). As McGinn et.al (2016) pointed out to use different databases, I made good use of the databases provided by both the library of the University of Stavanger and University of Gothenburg, Scopus, ProQuest and Google Scholar among others to gather peer reviewed articles, dissertations, reports and the likes. The following keywords has been valuable in gaining resource materials for this study: reunification of immigrant youth, culture in identity, risk and resilience, resiliency in immigrant children and resiliency in youth.

2.2 The Filipino Family and Values

Philippines even being an archipelagic country composed with over 7,000 islands and a population of 110 million with over 180 dialects shares common values. Greatest of which is the familism characterized by strong family ties that transcends beyond kinship. With a strong adherence to family life, Filipinos typically have a high regard for interdependence, loyalty and respect for the family (Agbayani-Siewart, 1994). It is manifested in assigning of roles being strengthened by assigning familial names as a sign of respect like Ate (older sister), Kuya (older brother), Bunso (youngest sibling), etc. which is done to preserve the family. This names extends even beyond immediate family members to include those which are godparents during baptisms and weddings.

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With extended families having a role in the family structure, which include grandparents and other very close relatives, it is perceived that this warrants for stronger protection, increased mutual support, interrelationships and interdependence (Agbayani-Siewart, 1994) within the family.

Modern Filipino parents have aimed to raise their children to become responsible, well-mannered and respectful out of “love and concern” for them. It goes to say that the family name is highly protected and kept its integrity by the children’s behavior (Harper, 2010) as the value of kinship is maintained by not causing shame and embarrassment to the family and/or the community (Astorga, 2006). Common to the literatures discussing Filipino values (Agbayani-Siewart,1994; Harper, 2010; and Morillo H., Capuno,J. & Mendoza, M. Jr., 2013) as follows are enumerated: (1) pakikisama or smooth interpersonal relationship-striving to be in good terms with everyone around, (2) amor propio (self-esteem)-high regard for self-esteem that is connected to (3) hiya (sense of shame) – the uncomfortable feeling from doing socially deviant acts, (4) utang na loob (dent of gratitude)-reciprocating a favor as a sense of gratitude to the giver (5) bayanihan (helping each other)- a communal value of a person or family be helped by the community, and lastly (5) masipag at matiyaga- hard work and perseverance in any life endeavor specially in work ethics.

2.3 Current Trends in Resiliency Research among Young Adults

In a global context, children and youth are faced with life changing challenges that construe consequences for the future of all societies (Masten, 2014). The need then for methods to handle these challenges is immanent for organizations and practitioners in order to ensure the utmost development of the future of the nations.

Resiliency as an ever-evolving concept that can be broadly defined as the capacity of a dynamic system to adapt successfully to disturbances that threaten system function, viability or development (Masten, 2014, p.6). Earlier models of resiliency presented a linear and non-linear relationship between adversity and adaptation while some construe the process as positive achievements in age-related tasks. Along its application and later refinement, it was pointed out that these approaches did not represent the reality of the adversities faced by children as they are often exposed to multiple-risk factors (Evans et.al, 2013; Obradovic, Shaffer and Masten, 2012 cited in Masten, 2014). Ungar (2014) in his resilience studies implied that even decades after Rutter (1987) devised the protective processes associated to resilience, there are still existing doubts on how to characterize positive development in adversity. According to him, this ambiguity was caused by the dominance of the view that resilience is an inherent trait of an individual than to look at it as a process that families, schools, communities and governments facilitates (Ungar, 2014). The assumptions that argues that resilience can be deduced to a cognitive process obtained by an individual was counter-argued by Ungar (2015) by posing that positive appraisal will not thrive without the opportunities provided for by the environment. Undermining therefore the process of building this cognitive thinking towards building positive appraisal, downplays the contribution of the environment to the process (Hopkins et.al, 2012 and Obradovic et.al, 2010 cited in (Ungar, 2015)). Masten (2014) cited Masten, 2012; Panter-Brick and Leckman, 2013; and Rutter, 1987 in concluding that the issue on resilience as being a trait should be put to rest as resiliency rather is composed of personality dimensions associated to positive coping. Research evidences supports this as their findings showed a range of varying capacities and values across

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individuals as they are experienced in different cultures and contexts (Masten, 2014). The role then of the environment in developing resilience is then again being underscored.

Masten, 2014 and Ungar, 2012 then pointed out that there is a need for resilience research to re- strategize the assessment of risk and adversity, adaptation and other influences that contributes to the varied adaptation among children and youth at risk (Masten, 2014 p.8). In 2011, Ungar developed the social-ecological resilience model that intended to address the aforementioned needs whilst highlighting the role of culture and context (Masten, 2014). This work was an outcome from different studies both qualitative and quantitative in nature that were conducted in five different continents across the globe. This model as explained in the later chapter grounded the theoretical framework of this study.

2.4 Studies along the Role of Culture in the Identity Development and Resilience of Young Adults

The main developmental task for adolescents is to build their identity, they need to define themselves in relation to others (Erikson, 1993). For an immigrant youth this process of identity development is made more complex as they are faced with the challenge to define themselves as a member of a cultural group separate of the majority (Nesteruk, Helmstetter, Gramescu, Siyam, & Price, 2015). These young adults are pressured to the demands of conforming to the mainstream culture while trying to hold-on to their heritage (Phinney, 1991; Karlsen &

Nazroo, 2002;Lee Lee, Hu & Kim, 2015).

Key to culture’s contribution to identity is the inculcation of values that guides their daily interaction. The development of a strong self-identity is equated to development of resilience, studies made along immigrant children and the development of their identity to wit:

(Karlsen & Nazroo, 2002), (Dvorakova, 2017), (Kiang, Yip, Gonzales‐Backen, Witkow, &

Fuligni, 2006), (Lee, Lee, Hu, & Kim, 2015), (Phinney, 1991), (Costigan, Koryzma, Hua, &

Chance, 2010), (Richardson, Jin (Claire) Song, Pumarino, & Hapsari, 2017), (Jowell, Wulfovich, Kuyan, & Heaney, 2018) has concluded that when an immigrant youth gets a secure and solid sense of self, their ability to surpass challenges is simultaneously reinforced. These studies correlated of the role of identity/ethnic identity development to the resiliency in different life aspects of the young adults.

Though the young adult immigrants may have different trajectories in the creation of their self-identity as influenced by their different contexts as some of the aforementioned studies raised the importance of holding to one’s ethnicity (e.g. Lee et.al, 2015) while the others created bicultural identities by blending both cultures (Nesteruk, 2015). It can be deduced that culture in the context of young adult immigrants is of great importance in the creation of their identity that in turn affects their resilience in facing adversities.

2.5 The Role of Environmental Systems in the Resiliency of Young Adults

Walsh, 2006 as the author of family resilience pointed out the role of family and social networks, and community along the positive development of young people. This study further focused on

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the relational and systematic network of relationships that nurture resilience in children and youth (Ungar, 2014 citing Walsh, 2006).

Family’s role as a central system to a growing adult cannot be discounted in the process of development and resilience building (Burgos, Al-Adeimi, & Brown, 2017). The role of the family is further emphasized as they are the forebears in facilitating the child’s expression of resilience as they help them navigate and negotiate their resources (Ungar, 2010). For a new-comer immigrant, the family becomes central source of support for physical, emotional and psychological aspects of the child (Burgos et al., 2017). Further, as the school is considered the second home of children and young adults, as most of their time is devoted inside its premises, makes them a relevant contributor to a child’s development. The role of the school as an important part of the environmental system where the youth has been deemed as second to the family. The school as core provider for protective environment conditions is highly essential in the promotion of the resiliency of children and youth (Henderson, N., & Milstein, M. M., 2003). The nature of the school environment will influence everything from a child’s academic success, to the safety they experience, and their capacity for social and emotional well-being (Ungar, 2012 citing Theron and Engelbrecht, 2012). Lastly, the role of the community is necessary for the development of resilience in different cultures and context (Ungar, 2010) the policies and programs and social connections present in the community is determinant to the feeling of belongingness of the adolescent.

Shifting the view of resiliency from individual to a systemic process to include the environment namely: family, school and community where these young adults interacts gives a more holistic and critical view on the factors affecting their development (Masten, 2014). Guided by this model in looking into resiliency is paramount to securing their optimal development and positive coping through the provision of policies, programs and services appropriate for them.

2.6 Problem-Focused Studies among Immigrant Youths

Leaving the country for another puts so much stress in a child immigrant, this uprooting means leaving behind a familiar language, culture, community, and social system (James, 1997). The youth who undergoes this phenomenon experiences varied adjustments to a new life that may potentiate psychosocial problems as they live their immigrant lives.

Most studies concerning immigrants youth explores the topics along difficulty in acculturation and assimilation (Neto, 2002), ethnic identity issues (Nesteruk et al., 2015), low education performance (OECD, 2018), marginalization (Theodorou & Symeou, 2013) and being prone to risk taking behaviors (Wilkinson, Shete, Spitz, & Swann, 2011). Most of them mostly focusing on the problems that they are experiencing specially to those coming from immigrant families living along poverty. Even studies focused along immigrant Filipino youth are also problem focused (see:

Wolf, 2006 & Guerrero, 2006), these studies centers on the academic, behavioral, and emotional difficulties that they experienced along their immigrant living.

As immigrants in a country, the main goal is for these youths to become contributing members of the state. With education as a ladder for securing jobs in the market, most of the available research resources discussed the immigrants academic performance and the lack thereof. OECD (2018)

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even in there longitudinal reports along the resiliency of immigrant youth’s in education has pointed out the deficiency of these immigrants to compete with their native peers. With this, interventions recommended also centered in the improvement of education policies and systems, thereby overlooking the other aspects of the environment where the immigrant youth navigates (Ungar, 2005). These type of studies comparing the behavior of immigrants to their native pears leads to enforce stereotypes among immigrant children which makes it problematic and not respecting of their context (Suárez-Orozco, Motti-Stefanidi, Marks, Katsiaficas, 2018).

2.7 Gaps in Literature

In the beginning chapter of this study, it was established that there is a dearth in studies conducted along the immigrant living of Filipinos in Norway despite their growing number (Bag-ao, 2016).

The problem-focused studies and its comparative way of analysis also drives the significance of this study in focusing resilience as tenet of strengths-based approach and to present their reality as the participants experience it without the need for comparison to other groups.

Further, the developing literature on ecological resilience drives this study as no researches yet among Filipino young adult immigrants using this model has been conducted. This, despite the fact that about 10% of the Filipino citizens are living abroad (POEA, 2015). The aforementioned gaps in literature is suggestive of furthering the significance of the conduct of this study.

2.8 Philosophical and Theoretical Framework

2.8.1 Social Constructivism

This study utilized phenomenology as the qualitative method deemed appropriate to answer the research question. Being in line with its epistemological roots, social constructivism as its guiding philosophy influenced the construction of this study. Closely related to constructivism is interpretivism as these philosophies grounds themselves in the view that reality can only be known through contextualized experience inquiry as meanings of different phenomenon are constructed by the subjects in relation to the object (Gray, 2014).

These views founded this study, thus the knowledge that was generated from this research is inductive in nature as the interpretation is grounded from the perceptions of the participants as they experience this phenomenon given their context (Bryman, 2016).

2.8.2 Ecological Resilience Model

The ecological resilience model developed by Micheal Ungar is a social constructionist approach in understanding resilience (Hewitt, 2015). In this model, resilience is defined as

“a set of behaviors overtime that reflect the interactions between individuals and their environments, in particular the opportunities for personal growth that are available and accessible” (Ungar, 2012, p.29). Further, a culturally contextualized definition was also coined by Ungar (2010) which defines resilience as:

In the context of exposure to significant adversity resilience is both the capacity of individual to navigate their way to the psychological, social, cultural, and physical

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resources that sustain their well-being, and their capacity individually and collectively to negotiate for these resources to be provided and experienced in culturally meaningful ways (Ungar, 2010, p. 425).

The entire model is a departure from the paradigm of individualism which views resilience as an attribution to the individual traits as the factor that greatly dictates coping under stress.

Central to the argument in this model is highlighting the process along the individual’s navigation around the systems surrounding them when faced with adversity. This model draws then on the multi-dimensional complexity of resilience dependent on the individual’s capacity and social ecology to heighten one’s positive development in the face of adversity (Schoon, 2006 cited in Ungar, 2012).

To elucidate more on this aspect, an equation was developed by Ungar (2010) to wit:

The equation above in its simplest terms means resilience process over time (R 1, 2, 3…) varies depending on the interaction between a person (P) and the environment (E), in consideration of the person's strengths (S) and challenges (C). This process is being mediated by the opportunities (O) that are available (AV) and accessible(AC) for adaptive coping. And is also simultaneously influenced by the socially constructed meaning systems (M) that shapes the individual’s meaning making of the risks and resources that they experience (e.g., whether they think of the resources as useful ). Ungar (2014) further took note that (M) is influenced by one’s culture thus keeping the entire process fitting to each individual context.

Moreover, in the characterization of resilience, Ungar (2018) developed principles in arguing that the certain dimensions should be considered when studying how systems endure functionality even being exposed to adversity. In defining a resilient system it is then essential that it employs the following features: (1) It occurs in the context of adversity- resilience is not similar to the existing patterns of growth predictable in a given environment, as this is a study on human systems, a need to account for risk exposure is essential in deciding whether a system is resilient or not. (2) Resilience is a process- resilience is a measure of how well a system integrates environmental shocks and initiates behavioral regimes. (Ungar, 2018). (3) A resilient system is open, dynamic, and complex- the system should be open for new information to promote opportunities for experimentation and learning. The more opportunities to experiment new strategies, the more resilient the individual become as it results to added strategies that can be used in the future (Cutter et.al 2008, Rocha et.al 2015, Carson and Peterson 2016 cited in Ungar, 2018). Its dynamic and complex character may lead to trade-offs between and among different systems (e.g. other parts will degrade while other areas are strengthened), as part of its complexity risks may not only emanate from the individual but also within the environmental systems. Further, its dynamic nature promotes connectivity to other systems, the more diverse the systems surrounding the individual, the more resources are available to navigate in developing their resiliency.

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On the other hand, although the ecological theories in general are criticized for its deficit in gauging the power relations between different systems (Healy, 2014). This theory was still selected as it situates the phenomena better in relation to answering the research question of this study. Also, its epistemological foundations grounded the choice of this model.

2.8.3 Developmental Theory

As time is a standing element in contextualizing a phenomenon as presented in the equation, the need to include the Psychosocial Development theory of Erik Erikson became essential to shed light to the challenges evolving the participants in this study. As the participants are in the adolescent age, Stage 5-Identity vs. Confusion is the stage were their experienced challenges are mostly stemming from. During this stage an individual builds a personal identity that is shaped by experiences and interactions with the environment.

Being successful at this stage would lead to the development of a strong self-image that can endure throughout a lifetime whilst living to the societal standards and expectations (Erikson, 1993).

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CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

As part of the production of a reliable research output, an honest audit trail has to include the entire research process (Ritchie et.al, 2014) thus, this chapter is dedicated to present the entire process undertaken. Also included in this chapter are the ethical considerations imbibed along the conduct of this study. The ethical considerations have been carefully thought of with great antecedence to its importance.

3.2 Research Method

This research study sought to answer the question “How is resiliency characterized by the reunified young adult Filipino immigrants in Norway?” with the following specific sub-questions to elucidate the phenomenon: “What are the challenges they encounter here in Norway being young adult immigrants from Philippines?” and “How do they cope with those challenges?”

As this research study is heavily based on the narratives along the lived experiences of the Filipino young adult immigrants, a phenomenological approach was the method selected to demystify its occurrence. Rooted from the philosophical view of social constructivism the phenomenological method answered the need of this study to provide for profuse and detailed information to understand the subject matter (Bryman, 2016).

Further, as this study focuses itself on the resiliency of reunified Filipino young adult immigrants the importance of using phenomenological method in understanding the construct of resilience in this context is deemed appropriate. The use of qualitative methods in resilience research would address the gaps along this subject as the qualitative process concerns itself with gaining more understanding from the experiences of specific people in specific contexts (Gray, 2014). Which as a result produces a more conscientious findings of the unnamed protective processes that interplay along the development of resiliency (Ungar, 2003). It is not intended to debunk the quantitative resilience studies but rather to compliment it by providing thick contextualized descriptions of the phenomena.

3.3 Participant Sampling and Size

As this research sought to elucidate on the lived experiences of reunified Filipino young adult immigrants, purposive sampling is the strategy used to gather the participants. Purposive sampling depends on the perspicacity of the researcher to gather the needed in-depth information related to the its field of interest using limited resources (Palinkas, L. A., Horwitz, S. M., Green, C. A., Wisdom, J. P., Duan, N., & Hoagwood, K, 2015) with the goal of answering the research question/s.

Thus, in order to answer the research questions, the researcher chose to scrutinize the narratives of eight (8) young adult Filipino immigrants aged fifteen to nineteen (15-19) years old living in Stavanger, Norway. The age was a conscious choice to represent the young adults/youth per United

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Nations’ definition of youth as people falling between the ages 15-24 years old. An added qualification in the selection of participants is necessary to ensure that they already have the ample experience on being reunified with their parents and subsequently have already been able to have some interaction with the outside environment. Thus, the young adult that was sought after as participant in this study has already been reunited with his/her parents for not any year shorter than two (2) years. Purposive sampling technique was used in gathering the research participants of this study as the study has certain qualifications to follow (e.g age, reunified immigrant), purposive sampling is the most suitable technique for participant recruitment. But during the conduct of recruitment, three (3) of the participants were from referrals from the others who were already interviewed. Thus, snowball sampling was also employed. Although the snowball sampling is criticized to potentiate high similarities within participants, it worked the otherwise for this research as it led to participants outside the church group initially targeted.

3.4 Ethical Approval

As this study is conducted in Norway under the University of Stavanger as the academic institution, approval from the National Social Science Data Services (NSD) was sought before I can get in touch with the research participants. This process was done in close cooperation between me and my supervisor as she patiently translated to me the online application form in English. The application was submitted dated January 31, 2019 and was approved on February 13, 2019.

Included in the submitted forms to NSD are the invitation to participate (see Annex B) and the sample interview guide (see Annex D).

I am fully aware of the role of NSD as an ethical committee to protect the interest of the research participants and the institution, in this case the University of Stavanger, from any inappropriate actions of the researcher deemed as unethical that could boomerang in the future (Bryman, 2016).

3.5 Recruitment of Participants

Gatekeepers are the groups that necessitates permission of the involvement of participants to the study (Bryman, 2016), it can be a formal organization or an individual that gives an access key to the research participants you are interested on. As I avidly go to church on Sundays and do join in most of Filipino Catholic Community initiated activities, I have known most of the key persons in the San Pedro Calungsod Filipino Catholic Community and the Filipino community officials.

Hammersley et.al (2007) cited Hoffman (1980) on the importance of having personal networks that can be used in gaining access to your field. Being a Filipino-student myself made it easier to gain the support of the gatekeepers to my study.

The Filipino value of bayanihan (helping each other) has made the access to the research participants relatively easier. As an international Filipino student, they have showed their utmost support for the completion of my study by ensuring that they will support my research endeavor.

A positive gesture as it is but their overwhelming support also made repercussions to the initial design of this study.

My first application to NSD only indicated young adults aged sixteen-nineteen (16-19) years old to strategically avoid the required consent from parents that may influence the delay of the ethical approval. But upon initial recruitment of participants, I was surprisingly outnumbered by those

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who wanted to participate. Parents have pledged to ask their children to participate and young adults as young as thirteen (13) years old have volunteered to join. It is a Filipino custom to always ask for parental consent for children who are still in the custody of their parents regardless of age, thus the involvement of parents along this line. I asked for their contact numbers to formally explain to them the details of the research project and to set interviews when they made up their final decision. Notably, during this initial contact with the young adults, they were very appreciative of the efforts of the study which is to give voice to their immigration stories. Their excitement was over the top as they felt like their stories are worth sharing and hearing.

The eagerness of both parents especially the youth themselves to support the study has been overwhelming that I had to resubmit my NSD application to allow me to interview young adults aged fifteen (15) to accommodate some of those who initially volunteered. Guided with the fact that 15 years of age still falls along the UN defined age category of youth.

3.6 Research Instrument

As the study is a qualitative inquiry of the lived experience of the young adult Filipino immigrants, narrative interview was the chosen research instrument to best answer the research questions.

Narrative interview as the research instrument used is described as either long or short accounts of stories that build throughout a person’s life (Riesman, 2008 cited in Bag-ao, 2016) and its purpose is to elicit exhaustive details on certain experiences (Bag-ao, 2016). Narratives as a tool has the capacity of provoking ‘affective persuasion’, reached by increasing the presence of a concrete image provided by the vivacity and realism of a particular event (Gomez-Estern & De la Mata- Benitez, 2013, p.350).

I have prepared an outline of the interview structure which was comprised of four parts:

Introduction- to formally introduce myself, the research and the rules of the interview process including asking permission to document the process through audio recording and note writing.

Then the Main Interview where I asked probing questions to generate their lived experiences being a young adult Filipino immigrant in Norway. Next was Wrapping up to clarify unclear points and point out highlights of the interview. I consider this part as very essential in consideration to the possible constraints I could face during transcription (Oliver, D. et.al, 2005). And lastly Closing to show gratitude and common courtesy for their participation (Bryman, 2016).

Upon securing informed consent I proceeded to the conduct of the interview which was set as to the convenience of the participants considering their availability and chosen location. Narrative way of interviewing was used to extract comprehensive description of their experiences in words and expression that they are most comfortable with. It was made clear to the participants that they can use Tagalog (National Language), Bisaya (Local Dialect that I speak) and English during the interview.

In totality, I have conducted in-depth interviews to eight (8) young adults which lasted from sixty to ninety minutes per interview. It was customary to all interviews that I explained the details and the purpose of their participation in the study. It was emphasized that their participation is voluntary and that there will be no repercussions should they withdraw their participation at any time, all these indicated in the consent form (see Appendix C). Further, since two of the participants are aged fifteen (15) years old, I made sure that their parents also signed the consent form before

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proceeding to conduct the interview (see Appendix C). The interviews were conducted in different settings, one (1) was in the house of the participant, five (5) were conducted in Stavanger library and two (2) were in coffee shops. All of the interviews were audio recorded with due permission from each of them.

The others who initially volunteered to participate and were not interviewed due to their unavailability on the initially set interview dates (reason of winter break vacations) were not anymore pursued as the interviews I had from the eight participants were found sufficient to provide thick answers to the questions of this study. I thanked them anyhow on their eagerness to participate in the study as sign of gratitude for their support.

3.7 Information Management

As already mentioned in the section before this, I have utilized audio recordings of the interview to capture their spoken narratives with their consent. I initially planned to take down notes, but I find it very hard to write while interviewing the participants. They were full of energy in recalling life events that I had to focus more on keeping their narratives directed to the questions as oftentimes they get engrossed with other events that are not so relevant with the subject matter.

All audio records are transferred to my personal computer filed in a folder secured with an access code. After transcription has been completed, all files have been deleted in compliance with the initially agreed confidentiality and privacy clause stipulated in the consent letter they signed.

3.8 Transcription

Parts of the interviews spoken in the local dialect Bisaya were translated to its closest English equivalent to ensure the veracity of the material. Transcriptions were done with the use of google documents. I made use of the audio writing feature of the application and transcribed the interviews by verbally repeating its entire content while the application simultaneously writes down what was being verbalized. The entire transcription process was easier and faster to do and is highly recommended for fast transcriptions of audio recordings.

The initial verbatim transcription has been re-transcribed in a denaturalized approach as this study wants to substantiate the experiences of the immigrant young adults. Thus, the meanings and perceptions shared during the interview is of primary consideration (Oliver, D. et.al, 2005).

Though the denaturalized approach is criticized to being overly-filtered by the transcriber (Oliver, D. et.al, 2005, p. 1279) as compared to the naturalized process which concerns itself to in-depth point-to-point transcription of the narratives, I still nominate this approach to transcription as it is fitted to my choice of analytical method. The transcribed script thus, do not include expressions like hahaha, uhmmmnn, ahhh, errr and its likes as I focused mainly on the stories and events that were shared in relevance to this study (Orb, Eisenhauer, & Wynaden, 2001).

After completion of the transcribed script, I sent them out to the respondents for verification and further comments. Only one out of eight has given additional information to the initial narrative shared.

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3.9 Analysis

Thematic narrative analysis was used in the analyzing of the script as this method is applied to stories that developed in conversations with great focus on how the stories are told rather than on the aspects of telling it (Kohler, 2008). The main goal was to be able to conceptualize inductively a set of stable concepts that can be used across cases as being shared by the participants (Kohler, 2008). I followed Braun & Clarke (2006) steps in doing thematic analysis as being enumerated below.

First step of doing thematic analysis was reading and re-reading of the transcribed narratives.

Second step, organizing the data and generation of initial codes. It took time as the narratives were revised to not include expressions, unessential discussions and redundant information whilst preserving the important portraying events. Third step, searching for themes by finding significant patterns along generated codes. Fourth, thorough review of initially generated themes vis-à-vis its relevance to the research questions. And lastly, substantiation of themes by defining them and establishing how they relate to each other (Delahunt & Maguire, 2017) in elucidating the answer to the research question/s.

3.10 Ethical Considerations

The following ethical principles are the once that I adhered to whilst conducting this study. Every step taken into consideration starting from the conceptualization of this project up to its implementation.

3.10.1 Principle of Autonomy

Respect for persons is embedded in the philosophical pillars of social work, as a social worker myself I made sure that the ethical principle of autonomy was observed as follows:

A. Ensuring Informed Consent

Research participants must consent in an unconstrained way to not violate the human rights to dignity and autonomy (Hammersley et.al, 2007). Failure to secure consent is considered a high form of deception (Hammersley et. al., 2007 citing Warwick, 1982) and that providing the research participants the full details of the research process is very important (Bryman, 2016 & Macklin, 1999).

To make sure that the participation of the reunified young adult Filipino immigrants in the research is not coerced, an invitation to participate has been sent out to those who have shown interest in the study. The young adults and their parents were given time to read and re-read its context and decide on their volition to participate in the research. Upon follow-up, those who volunteered to participate were given consent form. The said consent forms were collected before the conduct of the interviews. This was done to secure executed written evidence especially for those fifteen (15) years of age which parental consent is vital for their participation.

As they are young adults, I made sure to re-read the contents of the consent form highlighting their rights. The consent form contains all the necessary information about the research and its process,

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the type of information to be gathered, including the time needed for them to participate in the study (Hammersley et.al, 2007). Their rights highlighted that their participation is voluntary, and should they decide to withdraw from the research at any point in time, they can do so without any repercussions to their participation (Brooks, Horroks and King, 2019).

Further, before the conduct of interviews I made sure to ask the participants if their participation was of their personal will and was not forced upon them by their parent/s. This is done as I wanted to make sure that their participation is not just merely a result of the Filipino values of hiya (shame) and pakikisama (fellowship) that their parents want to show to me as a fellow Filipino.

3.10.2 Principle of Beneficence

In the conduct of this research it is indispensable to me as a researcher to ensure that no harm should be done to the research participants (Orb et al., 2001). Their safety was dutifully ensured as follows:

A. Confidentiality and Anonymity

Any information that the participants are to divulge are owned by them (Hammersley et.al, 2007).

In this research study the participants were made anonymous by using pseudonyms. This is done to not only protect their identity but also to encourage them to express their experiences in a manner where they can fully express themselves without necessarily being hindered by the feelings of being exposed to the public. Further, despite gaining their informed consent, it was made clear that they are not obliged to answer questions which they are not comfortable to discuss specially those which they feel that are too private and that they do not wish to make public (Bryman, 2016).

To ensure utmost confidentiality, all the recorded audio files has been stored in a folder with access code in my personal computer. After finalization of transcriptions all recorded and written conversations was deleted and shredded for trash.

B. Co-authorship

In the instance that I will pursue with the publishing of this study which is of ultimate goal. I am highlighting my ethical responsibility to inform the research participants to seek for their consent before doing so. It is in the light that though most of them have shown earnest desire to share their narratives for this research, disclosing their stories to a wider array of audience may lend off a different judgement over the matter.

Thus, in the event that I will publish any material from this study, it is immediate that they be contacted for inclusion/exclusion of their narratives. By this means, harm and deception will be avoided (Bryman, 2016 & Barron, 1999) and reciprocity is ensured as the participants are made aware of not only the process of the research but also its results and to where it is heading (Pittaway et.al. 2010).

3.10.3 Principle of Justice

Social justice is a principle embedded in the social work profession, these words “social justice”

are even included to the profession’s mission statement to underscore its importance. As social work practitioner, I consider this research as a contribution to the dearth of knowledge in the area

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of children in the migration phenomenon. As the lived experiences of the young adults is the forefront of this study, it clearly supports their right to be heard. As children is one of the sectors that are considered to be vulnerable in the society, it is of tantamount importance that their stories are acknowledged as active participants of the migration phenomenon (Mand, 2015).

Further, as this study grounds itself along the strengths-based perspective which supports the value of human dignity and worth. This research study then views the Filipino young adult Filipino immigrants as human beings with experiences worth to be heard and not just merely givers of information. Their rich contribution to this study was justified by ensuring the use of words that dignifies their participation. It was a conscious decision to use the words narratives or information to refer to the excerpts from the interviews gathered instead of data. And to use participants instead of respondents to give credit to their participation as the creators of the knowledge that emanated from this study.

3.11 Researcher’s Standpoint

In this research I acted both the insider and outsider stance, insider as being a Filipino but more of an outsider as I do not share the same experience with the participants. As a Filipino myself it was difficult to delineate my pre-conceive notions of Filipino culture and belief system from during the conduct of the study. The need for me to constantly exercise my reflexivity has been highly necessary to ensure the credibility of this study throughout the process.

Becoming a Better Version of Me: A Study on the Resiliency of Reunified Young Adult Filipino Immigrants in Norway